The reality is that we are all fellow-strugglers - we’re just at different stages of the journey! We’re all ragamuffins saved by grace.
James 4:12 - God is the only lawgiver and judge. He alone can save and destroy. Who do you think you are, to judge someone else?
I read of a young man who had the job of laying a pipe line through a rural country area. Part of the pipeline had to be laid through a farmers land, and he wasn’t too keen on having this pipeline running through his lands, even though the necessary permission had been obtained. The farmer’s land was protected by an electric fence, and when the young man got there, he carefully checked to see the electricity had been switched off. He then carefully straddled electric fence to climb over, when out the corner of his eye he caught sight of the farmer running for the farmhouse. It never crossed his mind that the farmer was running for the electric switch! Needless to say, what followed was a shocking experience – with this young man caught straddling the fence in a very vulnerable position.
Many times the church is like that farmer running for the power switch. Instead of turning up the grace, we turn up the power and heat – especially if their weakness makes us look better.
Matthew 7:1-5 - DO NOT judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves.
For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you.
Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in your brother's eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, Let me get the tiny particle out of your eye, when there is the beam of timber in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first get the beam of timber out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the tiny particle out of your brother's eye.
By the way, there is a difference between judging and disagreeing.
I hear people referring to gays as faggots or moffies. Now that’s personal. I’m not attacking the person’s view anymore – I’m attacking the person – his/her individuality. In a ragamuffin church there is no room for that! I know that we can NEVER all agree with each other on what we all believe in. I don’t expect us to! I don’t expect you to have to embrace a homosexual lifestyle, but we can disagree with what the other one believes, without making it personal.
The fact is that regardless of what someone thinks or believes, they are still valuable, unique creations of God, who have gifts that God wants to use. You have no right to undermine that value and gifting!
Jesus is a brilliant example of this: When he walked the earth, he encountered many different groups. But his eyes were always fixed on the individuals, never on what the group stood for. He refused to reject and label people. Instead he reached out to tax collectors, Samaritans, lepers, prostitutes, beggars and the rich.
Wherever you find Jesus, you would find a bunch of sinners. Sinners liked him and they felt comfortable around him and they felt the need to be near him. The more screwed-up somebody was, the more they liked Jesus. Everybody who was rejected by society felt comfortable when they were around Jesus.
I have to tell you that I wish people felt the same way about the church today. But the reality is that we are the last people sinners want to be around in this world. If you are really messed up, if you’re an evil-doer, you don’t want to be around church people!
Matthew Shepherd was a young man who was openly a homosexual. One day he was literally crucified against a fence. His family were obviously distraught. At his funeral, where the family were trying to grieve their loved one and find closure, some Christians gathered to declare; “This is God’s judgment on gays.”
Probably the best example we have in the Bible of God’s attitude to sinners and people who have really stuffed up is the story of The Prodigal son in Luke 15. The emphasis of this story does not fall on the errant ways of the son, but rather on the unconditional love and grace of the father. Here is a boy who makes a very conscious decision to go his own way and do his own thing. When he eventually comes to his senses, he decides to go home to his father, but feels unworthy and thinks that he will ask his father to take him on as a servant. When he arrives home, the amazing thing is that the father is WAITING for him, and the father runs out to meet him. The boy immediately starts apologizing. Now if I were that father, I would have let the boy grovel for a while! And then I would have laid down some very strict conditions for his return. I would have put him on “probation” to see if he had really repented and to make sure he wasn’t going to go back to his sinful ways. But not this father. The boy was still making his apology – but the father wasn’t listening! He was too busy telling the servants to bring his finest clothes to put on the boy (a beautiful picture of God taking our ragamuffin garments and replacing them with garments of beauty and righteousness when we don’t deserve it). The father tells the servants to prepare for a party, because a lost child has come back to his father.
Now God wants the church to reflect his attitude to wayward people. There needs to be a “house” somewhere, to which wayward children can return, without fear of rejection and condemnation. A place of unconditional love and grace.
James 4:12 - God is the only lawgiver and judge. He alone can save and destroy. Who do you think you are, to judge someone else?
I read of a young man who had the job of laying a pipe line through a rural country area. Part of the pipeline had to be laid through a farmers land, and he wasn’t too keen on having this pipeline running through his lands, even though the necessary permission had been obtained. The farmer’s land was protected by an electric fence, and when the young man got there, he carefully checked to see the electricity had been switched off. He then carefully straddled electric fence to climb over, when out the corner of his eye he caught sight of the farmer running for the farmhouse. It never crossed his mind that the farmer was running for the electric switch! Needless to say, what followed was a shocking experience – with this young man caught straddling the fence in a very vulnerable position.
Many times the church is like that farmer running for the power switch. Instead of turning up the grace, we turn up the power and heat – especially if their weakness makes us look better.
Matthew 7:1-5 - DO NOT judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves.
For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you.
Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in your brother's eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, Let me get the tiny particle out of your eye, when there is the beam of timber in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first get the beam of timber out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the tiny particle out of your brother's eye.
By the way, there is a difference between judging and disagreeing.
I hear people referring to gays as faggots or moffies. Now that’s personal. I’m not attacking the person’s view anymore – I’m attacking the person – his/her individuality. In a ragamuffin church there is no room for that! I know that we can NEVER all agree with each other on what we all believe in. I don’t expect us to! I don’t expect you to have to embrace a homosexual lifestyle, but we can disagree with what the other one believes, without making it personal.
The fact is that regardless of what someone thinks or believes, they are still valuable, unique creations of God, who have gifts that God wants to use. You have no right to undermine that value and gifting!
Jesus is a brilliant example of this: When he walked the earth, he encountered many different groups. But his eyes were always fixed on the individuals, never on what the group stood for. He refused to reject and label people. Instead he reached out to tax collectors, Samaritans, lepers, prostitutes, beggars and the rich.
Wherever you find Jesus, you would find a bunch of sinners. Sinners liked him and they felt comfortable around him and they felt the need to be near him. The more screwed-up somebody was, the more they liked Jesus. Everybody who was rejected by society felt comfortable when they were around Jesus.
I have to tell you that I wish people felt the same way about the church today. But the reality is that we are the last people sinners want to be around in this world. If you are really messed up, if you’re an evil-doer, you don’t want to be around church people!
Matthew Shepherd was a young man who was openly a homosexual. One day he was literally crucified against a fence. His family were obviously distraught. At his funeral, where the family were trying to grieve their loved one and find closure, some Christians gathered to declare; “This is God’s judgment on gays.”
Probably the best example we have in the Bible of God’s attitude to sinners and people who have really stuffed up is the story of The Prodigal son in Luke 15. The emphasis of this story does not fall on the errant ways of the son, but rather on the unconditional love and grace of the father. Here is a boy who makes a very conscious decision to go his own way and do his own thing. When he eventually comes to his senses, he decides to go home to his father, but feels unworthy and thinks that he will ask his father to take him on as a servant. When he arrives home, the amazing thing is that the father is WAITING for him, and the father runs out to meet him. The boy immediately starts apologizing. Now if I were that father, I would have let the boy grovel for a while! And then I would have laid down some very strict conditions for his return. I would have put him on “probation” to see if he had really repented and to make sure he wasn’t going to go back to his sinful ways. But not this father. The boy was still making his apology – but the father wasn’t listening! He was too busy telling the servants to bring his finest clothes to put on the boy (a beautiful picture of God taking our ragamuffin garments and replacing them with garments of beauty and righteousness when we don’t deserve it). The father tells the servants to prepare for a party, because a lost child has come back to his father.Now God wants the church to reflect his attitude to wayward people. There needs to be a “house” somewhere, to which wayward children can return, without fear of rejection and condemnation. A place of unconditional love and grace.
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